Thursday, September 27, 2012

This was a really fun band to play in. It was really relaxing to do. I worked with My buddy Mark Telfian painting houses all day, then we'd go write songs or practice them after work. It was a great stress release. This was recorded in 2003, and released on youth Attack Records while we were all living in Albany NY. McCoy did the entire layout, and made it look as questionable as Telfians politics. I love it. We wrote these songs in Altamont NY at Dan Barkers parents house. He played drums. My 'ol buddy/roomate Eric Schou played bass, Mark Telfian played guitar, and did the main vox. I played lead guitars, acoustic guitars, and back up vox.
We recorded the ep at Will Dandy's Dead Air Studio in Western Mass. At the time that Mark and I were writing these songs, we were heavily influenced by three bands. Megadeth, Abc Diablo, and Citizens Arrest. Thats all I recall listening to during that time period. I don't think you can hear the influences so much, but that is what we were going for musically. I wish we'd been able to do more together. We recorded a demo tape, that later got pressed to vinyl, but thats really it... enjoy.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

This tape being uncovered I owe to my friend Kevin 'O who I gave the only copy to well over twenty years ago. He was nice enough to save it, and recently sent it back to me. My guess is that if I would have kept it, it would be lost in a sea of tapes, or given away to someone else. I wish I still had the Possessed, and A.A. sets from the gig on tape... they are lost in a sea of tapes for sure.
The tape is from 1986 at the Farm in SF. It was the last show Discharge played after touring the U.S.A. on a their sell out LP. I had no idea that they had put out a bad record, and were touring on it, so me hearing them sounding like this was a complete shock. I was ready to hear the classic Discharge... I can be heard talking to another dude standing next to me about how they sound worse then Ratt, and wondering if anyone from the Orig lineup is even in the band. They really were horrible, and within the first song you can hear the crowd chanting fuck you. Within 10 mins in they give up playing, and for the next 30 mins, random dudes come out on stage to yell at the crowd, and tell them the cops are coming, and that we are closed minded assholes. Andy Anderson(Attitude Adjustment), and Scotty Verbal Abuse are some of the randoms talking the crowd down. Seriously a great memory. The entire farm chanting DRI, DRI, DRI, DRI...In hopes that DRI who had opened would come back out and play. Turns out that when Discharge came back out to give it another go, DRI walked up with a trash can full of garbage and threw it at the band. Members of the band were actually crying because of the reaction. Years later My friend Jim MacNaughton told me he saw them at La'Mar or something in NY, and the same thing happened. That would have been at the beginning of the tour. Hard to believe they toured like this. The recording was done on a little walkmen type tape player, but sounds awesome. There are only a few songs played, most the time of this tape is the great banter by roadies, and SF scene dudes. Pretty sure nothing else in the world exists like this. Enjoy the download

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Years before any one else was calling themselves Terror, these guys were playing as Terror. I
know very little about these Japanese thrashers. My old Albany friend
Louis J gave me this one back in the early 1990's. All he said was "enjoy
this Japanese rarity". He was the first guy I'd ever met who went
balls out collecting Japanese punk hardcore records. It was like an
addiction for the guy. Even back in 1989 he was sometimes paying $75
for records that I thought he was insane for buying. Turned out he was
way ahead of his time.
The record is chock full of speed and
blur. I'd say they were influenced by the likes of SOB, Outo, Gauze,
etc. The vocals are what make this for me. I love the Totally raw
recording on this ep. The songs are all like 3-4 mins long, but the
only one with any metal influence that I'm here is "no see mine". The
others are all raging hardcore tunes with some cool breakdowns to boot.
Enjoy.

I haven't listened to this LP in a really long time. I originally bought it at the Record Vault on Polk street in San Fransisco in around 1985 or 1986. I had no idea what they sounded like, but was told I should buy it by Andy Airborne who sang for Attitude Adjustment at the time. He worked at the shop on weekends, and told me Anti were a heavy influence on Attitude Adjustment. I was sold on that and the art work. Upon getting back to my apartment to listen to the LP I was somewhat disappointed by what I heard. The band played a more mid paced punk style rather then the thrashy HC that I was sorta expecting. I'd say if you crossed the Circle Jerks with Adolescents you'd understand the sound I'm talking about. The sound has def grown on me. Its melodic as hell punk, with snotty vocals, and kick ass catchy guitar solos that make me happy when hearing this. Still not sure if Andy was fucking with me or not...but I sorta think the bands politics and punk attitude might have had a influence on AA. I did take a lot of his recommendations, and most panned out and kept me a happy little thrasher. The band was from L.A., and with this release have nailed the L.A. punk sound.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

This ep was released just after the band had broken up, and even though there are only two songs on the ep, there is 10 mins worth of music. These guys were one of the first death metal bands to incorporate a keyboard player both live and on records. As any old metal heads out there remember key boards were a no no for most metal. NO FUCKING KEYBOARDS! When I first looked at their records I had the same thought. With these guys I always thought it worked pretty well though, as the themes of the songs were always pretty Sci-fi based, and it worked as cool back ground effects. I was turned onto the band by Dave & Jack who owned Erl Records. They would always call me up when new stuff came in, and throw stuff in the save drawer at their shop for me. I first discovered Carcass, and Crossed Out through these guys and their Albany NY based record shop. I picked up this bands first LP from them, and consistently kept buying other stuff from them that they released. These dudes were total Technical death nerds, and influenced a slew of other death-tech bands. The original line up included the first Morbid Angel drummer(who also sang). Florida death metal will always have a place in my heart.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Here is some more Western Mass hardcore for you. As stated in the Outpatients post before this, I mentioned I saw these guys in a basement with G-Man. Wishful thinking blew me away live. Total straight edge youth crew, but a bit more harsh sounding then say youth of today, etc. I'd say Wishful thinking were influenced by lots of straight edge(duh...Minor threat for sure), but mixed in the speed and rawness of other bands from their area(Deep Wound, Siege, Outpatients, etc). After I'd seen them, and got the 7" I tried to turn on the Albany folks I started to meet in the scene. Albany was sorta weird though. A very Straight edge, New York hardcore mentality existed here. If it wasn't from NY, it wasn't of interest to about 80% of the scene. Dudes in Albany who wanted to book, SNFU, Victims Family, Operation Ivy, and bands that weren't "hard" or "straight" had to book Judge, Token Entry, Super Touch, Sick Of It All, YOT, Breakdown, GB, etc. to get kids to come out to shows. It was weird.
Years after seeing these guys, and getting the 7" from my Western Mass connection, I'd met, and become friends with the singer of Wishful thinking. Mark Dargie, one of the nicest guys ever. I think I met him selling his record collection at a show. He's still around, and semi hip to whats going on. Download this...nine ragers on this 7" ep slab.
Sample:

I was turned onto these guys by a kid i'd met at Worlds Records in Albany NY maybe around 1989. I'd just moved back to the area from SF, and really hadn't met to many Albany punk/hc people yet. The guy I met wasn't from Albany, he was from Pittsfield Massachusetts(45 mins away). Back then when one saw another person in say a 7 Seconds shirt on or something, you'd approach them and make some conversation(seems like that sorta thing doesn't really happen anymore). At any rate this dude and myself exchanged info, and I ended up going to a couple of shows in Western MA with him. One was in a basement, with a band called Wishful Thinking, and G-Man. This guy introduced me to some of his friends, and a few months later sent me a copy of the outpatients demo, and a Wishful Thinking 7".

I'm pretty sure I still have the demo, but haven't unearthed it yet(or seen it in over a decade). This CD compiles the bands early stuff, including the demo. I love this stuff..raw silly sounding thrashed out punk hardcore.

fucking Metal!!! This should not be confused with the cock rock band with the same name.
I wasn't familiar with these guys in the early days. It wasn't until the 90's that I was introduced to them by this metal freak named John who would frequent the comic shop I worked at. John would swing by every week, and give me cassettes of demo's and rare obscure metal records that he had dubbed for me. What I recall most about this dude was that he lived at home with him mom, but had a porn addiction that i'd say matched almost any one I'd ever met. Dude drove around in this clunker of a car(like a la barren I think), blasting metal on his tape deck, with his video porn collection stored in the trunk so that his mother wouldn't find it at home. Totally hilarious. All I could ever imagine was him getting in an accident, or pulled over by the cops who searched his car only to find a huge stash of porn in the trunk. At any rate John taped me one of this bands demo's from the 80's. Years later I saw this sucker and knew I needed it. I guess this German Black/Death/Thrash band flew under my radar because I was more interested in Sodom, Kreator, and Destruction. At any rate this compiles a bunch of demo tracks, a live tune, and some other rarities. The band formed in the early 80's, and signed some bogus contract that didn't allow them to record anything for some time. This lead to inactivity, and then the bands break up.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

1.Plague2.Born In A Mess3.Exit4.Promised5.Splintered6.Spoon Fed7.Fangs8.Praying For Failure9.Body And Blood10.Frozen Minds11.You've Been Had12.Sensory Deprivation13.Invincible14.Fooled Again
Here is another
obscure classic hardcore release from the 90's. Eucharist were
from Richmond Virginia, and put out this 12" LP, and another four
compilation tracks. Unfortunately the band never did a demo. The band did an entire U.S. tour with Suppression,
and played the North East pretty regularly. My connection to this is
that one of my best friends, Mark Telfian formed this band after leaving
my band Devoid Of Faith, and moving from Albany down south. Mark
played on many a records including, Conniption, DOF, Death
Squad, By The Throat, Hail Mary and
Limp Wrist. This one is by far his most triumphant recording. The songs are
short, tight, and very harsh sounding. Totally brutal stuff indeed. I
always thought the band was under the influence of Econochrist meets
Citizens Arrest or Rorschach. When I mentioned this to Mark he laughed
and said "Negative Approach dude". This came out on Mountain, a label run by Chris Jenson. Enjoy!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

The 90's were at times some what depressing for balls out raging hardcore. Times they were a changing, and "diversity" had unfortunately infected the scene. Bands like Dropdead, Man Is The Bastard, Disrupt, Voorhees, Bastard, etc gave us hope. When I first heard Cold World in 1992 it automatically made me think of Heresy Meets Agnostic Front. C.W. took the speed from thrashers like Heresy & Ripcord, and added the hardness, and vocal style of AF. This was a breath of fresh air for me because I really wasn't ready to leave the sounds of the 80's yet. This bands music, was always blasting in the background at a comic book shop I worked in in 1994. The bands CD's and records were always for sale in my distro. I pushed them hard on the kids who were buying punk music from me back then.
The first tune on this ep is a slow one, but the other three fly by fast.Share cold world-you're an asshole ep.zip - 19 MB

Sunday, January 22, 2012

PT was a band that I did with an ex roomate Jason Krak, and his brother Jared who plays drums. Also involved was Sean Doody who played bass, and has been in the band End Of A Year for a good amount of time now. Musically I think we were influenced by the likes of Neurosis, Citizens Arrest, Bastard & Weed. We used a lot of the wah wah pedal to stoner things up a bit, and to try an do something a little different. I don't think it worked as well on here as it did the ep. This was recorded by Will Dandy at Dead Air Studios in Western Mass. We played some really fun shows, and recorded a 7" for my buddy Dan Barkers record label. I ended up leaving the band because I moved from Albany NY to Brooklyn NY. The band replaced me, and recorded another demo. I'll up the 7" sometime in the near future. Good times...

Thursday, January 12, 2012

1.black mark
2.stood up
3.bustin' out
4.suicide
5.rich life
6.pack of one
7.pride of the pack
8.black book of hell
9.wolfpack

The band was always known as Wolfpack to us. When the record came out for what I guess were legal reasons they had to add NY at the beginning of the name. Silly. Regardless, This record is an important part of Albany NY punk/hardcore history. These guys were really the first Albany hc band that I can recall buying a LP from. I think the first Albany NY hc band to actually have an LP come out at all. I'd seen these guys a couple of times, but never with the vocalist on this record(Steve Reddy). There were two other vocalist in this band through out its short life. Early on they really sounded a lot like...you guessed it, DYS(duh...Wolfpack). I actually wasn't much of a fan of this record when it initially came out. I guess it took me years to appreciate it. I think what I loved most about the record was the back cover photo of the band hanging out near some huge Wolfpack Graffiti that was painted on parking lot wall at Worlds Records. This graffiti remained there for over a decade. It was Albany...
It really hit me when I drove by and noticed that they had covered it up with "proper" paint years later. Everytime I'm in the area and drive by I half expect to see it when I glance in that direction.
Steve Reddy of course went on to create Equal Vision Records. He and Dave Stein would put on the best hc shows ever back in the 80's. Albany was hit by everyone that was touring back then.